A black and white postcard of the C & A general offices. The building is now used as Bisbee City Hall. The postcard is unused and was published by Albertype Company, Brooklyn, New York.

The ceremony turning the first shovelful of dirt for the foundation of the Calumet & Arizona office took place on Tuesday, September 8th, 1908 at 7 o’clock with company officials present. The shovelful was turned by Col. J.K. Shoemaker. When the building was completed, it boasted the then modern amenities of electric lighting and telephone lines. In the basement were showers, changing rooms, lockers, and two vaults for the company. The first floor contained accounting, purchasing, and payroll departments and the main company employees while the second floor housed the offices of the engineers, geologists, superintendents, secretary and the General Manager L.W. Powell. The ground area it took up was 90 by 60 feet with 40 feet in height and was Sullivanesque in style named after the architect Louis Sullivan. The building style was described as home like, perfect for the Warren suburb. The contractor who built it was Otto Kroeger from El Paso, Texas. Among his other buildings included the Bank of Bisbee and the Gadsden Hotel in Douglas. The cost for the Calumet & Arizona Offices was around $60,000 (about $1,800,000 in 2021). In 1931, Calumet & Arizona merged with the Phelps Dodge and the building transferred over to Phelps Dodge’s ownership. A number of various businesses worked out of the former office until the mid-1970s. City Hall was moved from its former building, which was ironically considered to be a fire trap, to the C & A offices in late 1976. Mayor Chuck Eads reasoning was that it would have been far more to enlarge the former building rather than paying $800 ($4,166 in 2022) to Phelps Dodge who owned the building at the time. The move cost $14,000 instead of the $6,000 that was expected as much of the old wiring needed to be replaced. The Calumet & Arizona former office was the first stop in Bisbee’s 16th Annual Home Tour featuring the buildings designed by Henry C. Trost. In 2000 the City of Bisbee finally purchased the building. In the early morning of Wednesday, October 18th 2017 the 108-year-old former offices a building burned in a fire. Later investigations proved that it was not caused by arson, and the fire originated from a second-floor office that was temporarily used as storage during then ongoing renovations. the buildings walls were declared safe, the remaining structure was torn down. The contents of the vaults were retrieved at a later date. The lot where the building was remains empty and city hall was relocated.

1984.71.138